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Description:c1940.
View of Christ Church School grounds showing the playground behind the wall and fence of Far Fold Square. The boy standing outside is Brian Ford, who was born in 1930. Members of the Ford family lived in the Far Fold area for many years.

User Comments:

Name:

Sheila Jubb

Comment:

I remember some of the Ford family from the Theaker Lane area of Armley. I suppose they are all gone from Armley now, as are most 'Armleyites' including myself.
Theaker Lane was a rather quaint area with some of the houses set in yards and squares and I think
that if it had been updated instead of
demolished some of the properties could have
been saved. This would have left a bit of
the character that was the old Armley.
Much more pleasing to the eye than the high
rise flats. There will not be many people left who can remember how it used to look around old Armley.

Look at these railings, with their somewhat Quasi-Gothic design, and each 'window' topped with a large ball finial. They also seem to have their top sections cranked over. If you look closely you can make out that the same pattern is used on the wall beyond. With regard to what we see today, most pale into insignificance, when compared to what we see here. Railing such as these were usually made from Wrought Iron. We used to refer to it as 'pure iron' - - - which it was, just about. It appears that a metallurgical study, as recent as 2010 (Dr. Gerry McDonnell), has shown that a wrought iron 'bloom' made in the traditional way could produce a 99.7% pure iron, with no, or practically no carbon present. Wrought Iron is a wonderful material to use, as it can be easily worked in either a hot or cold state. If any section needs to be welded to another, you just heat the particular areas to a reasonably low glowing heat of approximately 1300-1500 degrees Centigrade, and then basically stick both parts together. If it's done correctly, they are bonded for life. As opposed to normal cast iron, it has very good tensile strength, - is highly resistant to fatigue, and by its very nature, is very resistant to corrosion. You have only to look at some of the old 19th century wrought-ironwork that is still extant throughout this country to see how it has stood the test of time. Another thing to note here, is how the feet are set into the coping stones. There are no screw-heads visible. Each foot will have been anchored in a cavity containing lead. Machine tools were often anchored to the floor by this method. As apprentices we were taught how to do this.
I always smile whenever I see modern ornate steel railings fastened to a wall with a flat baseplate and four (usually hexagon headed) screws. If a thief wanted them, all he would have to do would be to remove all the screws, and then lift the fencing off the wall. You wouldn't have been able to do that with these railings here! An ox-acetylene gas torch would have been needed.

Wrought Iron:- For anyone interested, there is, by today's standards, something oddly unusual about part of the traditional 'PUDDLING METHOD' of producing wrought iron. The nature of the iron being melted in the 'PUDDLING FURNACE' was such that a quantity could be picked up and held onto the end of a long iron shaft. This was done manually, and basically similar to the method used by a glass-blower. The big difference being that with iron the heat is much more intense, and the material, much heavier. The furnace door had to be wide open to allow the furnace-man to stir and pick up what would be a conveniently sized blob, or 'BLOOM' of iron on the end of a long 'RABBLING ROD'. This spongy Bloom would then be smashed onto a solid section of the furnace floor, until it was judged that it was pure enough to be removed, and then it would be taken out, and onto the next process. The furnace-men would be carrying out a very heavy and strenuous manual job, as well as having to suffer extreme heat emanating from the furnace, throughout his shift. The whole atmosphere in the immediate surrounding area would be hot, since often there could be a whole row up to a dozen or more furnaces. The result was that the furnace-men would have discarded most of their clothes, and replaced them with strong sacking, to give them some form of protection from heat and sparks, etc.. Of course the sacking would soon be aflame unless special measures came into play. This is where the 'BEER BOY' came in. Each man, or group of men would have a Beer Boy in attendance. His job was mainly twofold. (i) - He had to douse the furnace-man with water when necessary. (ii) - He had to fetch beer when the furnace man needed to slake his thirst. As much 'Short Beer' as was needed would be supplied free of charge, throughout the shift, by the employers. As the years progressed, beer was replaced by non-alcoholic alternatives. Even though the beer might be somewhat of an incentive, I wonder how many people would be prepared to do very heavy work, in extremely fierce heat, clothed only in old sacks, and to have water thrown all over themselves, every few minutes throughout an eight to ten hour shift, and working a six day week. - - - Not many, - - - if any.

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